Aerial railway



M. AfANER.

AERIAL RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 23. l9l9.

Patented May 4, 1920.

N; SE

a; my 5 a EVEEIE? MARTIN ABELLA ANER, 0F LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.

AERIAL RAILWAY.

esaets.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

' Patented May a, 1920.

Application filed April 23, 1919. 7 Serial No. 292,198.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARTIN ABELLA ANER, citizen of the Philippines,residing at Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster and Kingdom ofEngland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AerialRailways, of which the following is a specification.

In the Philippine group there are three or four hundred islands many ofthem separated by only comparatively narrow water ways, and thisapplication is especially designed for intercommunication between theseislands, though it is also applicable in other cases. r I

Referring to the drawings,

Figure 1 shows a view broken near the center, and at the ends of aninstallation between two islands:

Fig. 2 is a cross section of a station post and two carriages 5 Fig. 3 across section of a balloon support.

In these drawings, A is a lattice post carrying a lift B in the center;C booking office; D platform, D supports grasping the cables with ballbearing joints D thus keeping the carriage firmly held to the twocables; E a car. This car has a propeller F at each end and seats, etc.,for passengers and guard. G is the upper main cable, and G the lowermain cable on which the carriage runs. R a wheel running on the lowermain cable and forming with the latter a conductor to earth. J is ametallic hoop having a ball or other hinged bearing D around the lowercable and another similar bearing D around. a cable K attached to aballoon L. This hoop J is preferably made of aluminium, M is theelectric cable, and N a trolley taking the charge from the electriccable. The two cables G and G are firmly attached by wires O to strongabutments firmly anchored in the ground in the ordinary manner ofsuspension bridges. P is a strong bracket on the post carrying theterminal bearings of the cables G, 0'. It is partly cut away on theleftterminal hand side and still more on the right hand side of Fig.2'in order to show the mechanism, the cables running on a pulley Q. andcovered by another pulley R on the car.

The mode of action is as follows On two islands not a very greatdistance apart are fixed two terminal posts and two wires are carriedacross and firmly anchored at each end. If the span is very long, bal'loons L with their rings J are fixed at intervals to carry the cables.The cars are placed at the terminal stations when the electricity is onand the trolley applied. The cars pass along the wires between the twocables. I may in some instances, where the span is very long bring ashunt from the cable around the struts D, and form these aselectro-magnets, so that they shall have a strong pull on the steelcable holding it in place, but for short spans this is unnecessary, asthere are sufficient balloons along the course to keep the cablesuspended. The passengers are raised to the terminal stations by thelifts B, and once every day or so a relief carriage goes along withstored hydrogen or helium, and supplies with fresh-gas any balloon whichappears to be weakening. In such instance the gas is liberated from theballoon, the latter brought down to the car and the valve closed and theballoon filled with a fresh supply of gas. As the weight of the car ispretty considerable, and in long cables or in long spans would give astrong tension on the cables, I form the cars with planes S, one on eachside near the top like the planes of an aeroplane which can be put toany required angle and thus at the speed used take off the entireweight, or such of the weight as desired, of the car from the cables.

In thus describing my invention, I do not bind myself absolutely tosingle spans, as where there is a rock or a small island between twolarger ones, I may place a post similar to A on the small island or rockand thus support the cables half way and indeed the railway can be madefor miles long if desired passing over several islands or over ruggedcountry or the like by having posts at intervals,

I declare that What I claim is 1. An electric railway for crossing armsof the sea or other diflicult country, formed of two main cables forsuspending the carriages one above and the other below, high postscarrying the cables, terminal anchorage abutments similar to those ofother suspension bridges, and down which the return cable runs to earth,and trolley trains running on the main cable or cables, and trolleys forconnecting the cars to the elec tric cable. 1

2. An electric railway formed of one or more main cables for suspendingthe carriages, high posts carrying the cables, terminal anchorageabutments similar to those of other suspension bridges, and trolleytrains running on the main cable or cables, and trolleys connecting thecars to the electric cable, and balloons placed at intervals to takeoflf the weight from the cables.

3. In an electric suspension railway, the combination of an aeroplane,one or more main cables for supporting the aeroplane, posts supportingthe cables, open bearings on the said posts, arms from the aeroplanenear each end projecting against the wire in the bearings and capable ofpassing through the bearings, an electric cable, a trolley from the carto the electric cable and an electric motor and propeller in the car topropel the carriage along the main cables. 7

4. In a two line electric suspension railway, the combination ofsupporting posts be tween the two lines, one or more main supportingcables for each line, cars running thereon, an electric cable for eachline, trolleys from the car to the electric cables, and an electricmotor and propeller in each car to propel the carriage along the maincables, and adjustable planes attached to the car whereby the planes cantake off the weight of the car from the cables when in motion.

5. In an electric suspension railway in which there are one or more mainsupporting cables and electric cable, and aeroplanes traveling on themain cables and supplied with electricity from the electric cable, thestations formed of a hollow post having a hoist therein placed betweenthe two lines and a platform at the top.

6. In an aerial railway, a series of supporting posts, cables carriedthereon and in long spans, one or more balloons between the posts, andframework surrounding and carrying all the cables (and the car whenbetween them) between the posts.

7. In an electric suspension railway, the combination of two parallelsupporting cables one over the other, a car and stout rods from the carat both ends holding on to both cables by antifriction devices in thevertical center line of the car.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name this 3 day of April,1919 in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MARTIN ABELLA ANER.

Witnesses WM. P. THOMPSON, H. P. SHOOBRIDT.

